Abstract
During an inventory and ecological study of amphibians in the lowlands of Bolivia, we recorded two populations of a largerepresentative of the Leptodactylus pentadactylus species group (sensu Heyer 1979, 2005) formerly assigned to L.labyrinthicus. However, analyses of morphology, advertisement call, and Bayesian inference of mitochondrial DNA (16S)provided evidence for the heterospecific status in regard to L. labyrinthicus. Using an integrative taxonomic approach weherein assign these populations tentatively to L. vastus. This poses a range extension of more than 2000 km west-south-west and suggests that sampling between the known distribution areas is needed. The signal red coloration of thighs andgroin may be a diagnostic character to distinguish this species from other species of the group. Our results suggest that ataxonomic revision of the whole species group (including Bolivian populations studied herein) is needed. A far morecomprehensive sampling throughout its distribution area and further studies on species boundaries and phylogeography in this group is necessary to actually understand the taxonomy of this difficult group.References
Alfaro, M.E., Zoller, S. & Lutzoni, F. (2003) Bayes or Bootstrap? A simulation study somparing the performance of Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling and bootstrapping in assessing phylogenetic confidence. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 20, 255–266.
Camargo, A., de Sá, R.O. & Heyer, W.R. (2006) Phylogenetic analyses of mtDNA sequences reveal three cryptic lineages in the widespread neotropical frog Leptodactylus fuscus (Schneider, 1799) (Anura, Leptodactylidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 87, 325–341.
Crawford, A.J., Lips, K.R. & Bermingham, E. (2010) Epidemic disease decimates amphibian abundance, species diversity, and evolutionary history in the highlands of central Panama. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 13777–13782.
Darst, C.R. & Cannatella, D.C. (2004) Novel relationships among hyloid frogs inferred from 12S and 16S mitochondrial DNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 31, 462–475.
de la Riva, I., Köhler, J., Lötters, S. & Reichle, S. (2000) Ten years of research on Bolivian amphibians: updated checklist, distribution, taxonomic problems, literature and iconography. Revista Española de Herpetología, 14, 19–164.
de Sá, R.O., Heyer, W.R. & Camargo, A. (2005) A phylogenetic analysis of Vanzolinius Heyer, 1974 (Amphibia, Anura, Leptodactylidae): taxonomic and life history implications. Arquivos do Museu Nacional, 63, 707–726.
Drummond, A.J., Ashton, B., Buxton, S., Cheung, M., Cooper, A., Heled, J., Kearse, M., Moir, R., Stones-Havas S., Sturrock, S., Thierer, T. & Wilson, A. (2010) Geneious v5.1, Available from http://www.geneious.com.
Fouquet, A., Gilles, A., Vences, M., Marty, C., Blanc, M. & Gemmell, N.J. (2007) Underestimation of species richness in Neotropical frogs revealed by mtDNA analyses. PLoS ONE, 2, e1109.
Frost, D.R. (2011) Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 5.5, American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. Available from http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/. (31 January, 2011).
Heyer, W.R. (1979) Systematics of the pentadactylus species group of the frog genus Leptodactylus (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 301, 1–43.
Heyer, W.R. (2005) Variation and taxonomic clarification of the large species of the Leptodactylus pentadactylus species group (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae) from Middle America, northern South America, and Amazonia. Arquivos de Zoologia, 37, 269–348.
Heyer, W.R, de Sá, R.O. & Rettig, A. (2005) Sibling species, advertisement calls, and reproductive isolation in frogs of the Leptodactylus pentadactylus species cluster (Amphibia, Leptodactylidae). Russian Journal of Herpetology, 12, 35–39.
Ibisch, P.L., Beck, S. G., Gerkmann, B. & Carretero, A. (2003) Ecoregiones y ecosistemas. In: Ibisch, P. L. & Merida, G. (Eds), Biodiversidad: La riqueza de Bolivia. Estado de conocimiento y conservación. Ministerio de Desarrollo Sostenible, Editorial FAN, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, pp. 47–88.
IUCN (2011) IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. Available from: http://www.iucnredlist.org/ (11 Oktober 2011).
Jansen, M. (2009) Measuring temporal variation in calling intensity of a frog chorus with a data logging sound level meter: results from a pilot study in Bolivia. Herpetology Notes, 2, 143–149.
Jansen, M., Bloch, R., Schulze, A. & Pfenninger, M. (2011) Integrative inventory of Bolivia’s lowland anurans reveals hidden diversity. Zoologica Scripta, 40, 567–583, DOI:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2011.00498.x
Jansen, M., Schulze, A., Werding, L. & Streit, B. (2009) Effects of extreme drought in the dry season on an anuran community in the Bolivian Chiquitano region. Salamandra, 45, 233–238.
Killeen, T.J., Jardim, A., Mamani, F. & Rojas, N. (1998) Diversity, composition and structure of a tropical semideciduous forest in the Chiquitanía region of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 14, 803–827.
Kimura, M. (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotid sequences. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 15, 111–120.
Márquez, R., De la Riva, I. & Bosch, J. (1995) Advertisement calls of Bolivian Leptodactylidae (Amphibia, Anura). Journal of Zoology, 237, 313–336.
Márquez, R., De la Riva, I., Bosch, J. & Matheu, E. (2002) (Eds) Guía sonara de las ranas y sapos - Sounds of frogs and toads in Bolivia. Fonoteca Zoologica, Alosa, CD and booklet.
Rodrigues, D.J., Lima, M.M., Velásquez, C.L. & Mott, T. (2010) Amphibia, Anura, Leptodactylidae, Leptodactylus paraensis Heyer, 2005: Distribution extension, new state record, and geographic distribution map. Checklist, 6, 467–469.
Schulze, A., Jansen, M. & Köhler, G. (2009) Diversity and ecology of anuran communities in San Sebastián (Chiquitano region, Bolivia). Salamandra, 45, 75–90.
Steinke, D., Salzburger, W., Vences, M. & Meyer, A. (2005) TaxI – A software tool for DNA barcoding using distance methods. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Biological Sciences, 360, 1975–1980.
Tamura, K., Dudley, J., Nei, M. & Kumar, S. (2007) MEGA4: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) software version 4.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 24, 1596–1599.
Vences, M,. Thomas, M,. van der Meijden, A., Chiari, Y. & Vieites, D. (2005) Comparative performance of the 16S rRNA gene in DNA barcoding of amphibians. Frontiers in Zoology, 2, 5.
Vieites, D.R., Wollenberg, K.C., Andreone, F., Köhler, J., Glaw, F. & Vences, M. (2009) Vast underestimation of Madagascar’s biodiversity evidenced by an integrative amphibian inventory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106, 8267–8272.
Vieira, W.L.S., Santana, G.G. & Vieira, K.S. (2007) Description of the tadpole of Leptodactylus vastus (Anura: Leptodactylidae). Zootaxa, 1529, 61–68.
Yanek, K., Heyer, W.R. & de Sá, R.O. (2009) Genetic resolution of the enigmatic lesser Antillean distribution of the frog Leptodactylus validus (Anura, Leptodactylidae). South American Journal of Herpetology, 1, 192–201.